British Airways implements Chip and PIN with the Clue® Trader payment solution
"... with the introduction of Chip & Pin the level of fraud has reduced substantially" - November 2006
British Airways (BA) is now accepting payment for goods by Chip and PIN on all flights using the Clue® Trader system.
Clue® Trader's SkyPort Plus solution (known to BA as the Barplus II system) is fully utilised by BA crew as an integrated onboard point-of-sale (POS) system with Chip and PIN. The Clue® Trader solution has facilitated BA becoming the first UK airline to achieve 'end to end' Chip and PIN accreditation with the banks.
Clue® Trader developed the SkyPort Plus solution to fulfil all the requirements of an onboard POS system and BA are now accepting payment for goods by Chip and PIN on all flights. The device has a long battery life, integrated printer, barcode scanner and a handset which provides the POS functionality as well as Chip and PIN payment.
The fraud 'liability shift' was introduced in the UK last year which means that banks will no longer cover any fraud or charge backs which could have been prevented with Chip and PIN technology. With the introduction of the Clue® Trader solution, BA is protecting itself from a large amount of credit card fraud. Richard Cushing, Retail Business Manager at BA - In-flight Services, says "with all off line authorisations fraud was an ever present risk, with the introduction of Chip & Pin the level of fraud has reduced substantially".
BA is the first UK airline to achieve 'end to end' Chip and PIN accreditation with the banks. This means that every part of the process, from the point where the credit card is inserted into the machine, to the point where the card details are exported to the bank, meets the stringent requirements laid out by EMV (Europe, MasterCard and Visa), PCI (Payment Card Industry), APACS (Association for Payment Clearing Services) and the acquiring banks.
The new regulations surrounding Chip and PIN, state that customers should never have to hand their credit card to someone else. With the SkyPort Plus handset this is now possible. Crew can undock the handset to take the point of sale AND certified PINpad to the passenger (even the passenger in the window seat) with no trailing wires.
The introduction of Credit Card Hotlists being stored on the devices (where credit cards are checked against a list of millions of fraudulent credit cards in less than a second) together with Chip and PIN means that BA can confidently accept credit cards onboard. Dr Peter Trueman, the Clue® Trader Project Manager, said 'the whole process has been extremely challenging as Chip and PIN in an 'offline' environment is a very new concept to the banks. But we are looking forward to the next implementation now we have the first under our belts.'
The concern for the rest of the UK and European airlines is that now that Chip and PIN is a reality in the air, is the fraud going to migrate to other airlines?
Key Points:
- Reduction of fraud.
- Compliance with new regulations.
- Avoid the fraud liability shift.
- Completely mobile - no trailing wires.
